On the directives of the Election Commission of India(ECI), the District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Varinder KumarSharma on Thursday inspected the First Level Checking (FLC) of ElectronicVoting Machines (EVMs) and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) atPunjab Agriculture University (PAU) that started today in the presence ofrepresentatives of political parties.
Accompanied by Additional Deputy Commissioner (G) RahulChaba, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Khanna) Sakatar Singh Bal, DeputyCommissioner examined the work of the first level checking of the machines tobe used during the upcoming Assembly Elections next year.
He held detailed interaction with the Engineers of BharatElectric Limited (BEL), who have been assigned the duty of preparing thesemachines. Sharma said that primary motive of this inspection is to ensure thatpolling is conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.
The Deputy Commissioner said that all these machineswould be used by the administration during the 2022 Assembly Elections andadded that the process of thoroughly checking of 6485 Ballot Units, 4339Control Units and 4664 VVPATs to be used during the elections would becompleted within a month. He said thatthis exercise is the most important work for ensuring the elections in asmooth, hassle free and transparent manner.
The Deputy Commissioner said that owing to this reason,ECI has decided to hold this exercise much in advance. He said that proper security arrangementsalong with CCTV/Videography have been ensured during completion of FLC.
He said that the district administration has alreadyrequested the political parties to send their representatives during thesechecking to ensure full transparency in the entire work.
Sharma further said that the political parties must takepart in this activity because it is very essential for strengthening the ethosof democracy at the grass-root level.
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Prominent amongst others present on the occasion includedElection Tehsildar Anju Bala, political representatives Kamal from IndianNational Congress, Dev Raj from CPI (M) Arun Kumar Sidhu and Sarbjeet Singhfrom NCP.